


Peace

by Jackolidus



Series: Justin and Justin [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: History, Injury, Outer Space, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28985922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackolidus/pseuds/Jackolidus
Series: Justin and Justin [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2114421
Kudos: 1





	Peace

Avoiding the captain was not difficult. For one thing, the captain seemed to want nothing to do with Justin. So Justin stayed in bed. Matt would pop in to visit and bring food and drinks and good conversation, but Justin could tell that the gully wasn’t happy. He could tell that Matt was on edge. The edge of what, Justin couldn’t tell. 

As his vision cleared, he was able to get up and walk around the room. He’d been able to deduce that there was, at least, one bed. As he gained mobility, he found that he was right. There was only one bed. Made for two people. And if he shared a room with Matt, that meant that he was expected to share the bed with Matt. But Matt hadn’t slept in the bed with Justin since that first night. It forced Justin to feel a spark of gratitude for Matt, who had clearly picked up on Justin’s unspoken discomfort for being very physical with anyone. 

The very first time he got out of bed and was able to see shapes with details, he found a mirror. He leaned over the sink in the bathroom and got close to his own face. “Oh,” he said, discovering that his eyes were completely black. He wondered if that was how they were supposed to be, or if it was a by-product of the injury. His fingernails were also black. He took off his shirt and saw an intricate mark weaving across his midsection. It looked like an ink spill. He couldn’t tell if there were details to it, it was too far away from his eyes, but he could feel that the skin there was a different texture to his other skin. 

He abandoned looking himself over in favor of examining the many blinking lights on the walls of the main living space of the room. Most of the words were unreadable to Justin’s eyes, but he could see a large sticker with a big number six on it. Sometimes, Matt would say the word six, which summoned another one of those robot assistants, which was open to being as helpful as it could possibly be. 

Justin decided to try his luck. “Six?” he asked. He flinched backwards as a short, metal being popped out of the wall, ready to help. “Uh, hi.”

“Hello, Ripper,” Six said, a bright, smiling face appearing on the front panel of the head. Justin could just make it out. “How can I be of assistance?”

Justin didn’t know. “What can you do?”

Six’s head seemed to be bouncing. “Mostly fetching and carrying, but I can answer simple queries with the help of the database.”

Justin found a chair and sat down, still facing the robot. His organic leg seemed to be giving him trouble, lately. It was sore and throbbing. “What kinds of queries?”

“I am unauthorized to give you any information about the ship’s log, but I can answer simple queries.”

Justin made up his mind that he liked Four better. At least Four had an attitude. “What can you tell me about myself?”

“Apologies, but my datachip is not loaded with the ability to pronounce your name.”

Justin smiled a little. “That’s okay. What can you tell me?”

“You are from the planet Peace, #45232. You are a part of the race of Peacemakers. You are 2/3rds old.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your life cycle is 2/3rds of the way over.”

Justin nodded. That made perfect sense. A way to standardize time. “Tell me more about Peace.”

“Peace, planet #45232, was formed three times before the IPC, and--”

“What does that mean?”

“In the time it took for the IPC to be formed, your planet had time to be formed three times.”

Justin was less on board with that standard. “Got it.”

Six didn’t miss a beat. “Peace is a large planet, an eight on the scale of size, with ten being the largest. With over 34 billion residents, it is the second most populated planet in the known universe. Featuring many lakes--”

“I want to know about the residents. The Peacemakers.”

Six’s smile was unwavering. “The Peacemakers are a peaceful race, disbelieving in war and conflict. For the age and size of the planet, the fact that major planetary conflicts have been avoided is a miracle.” Six paused, probably to wait for Justin to interrupt again. He didn’t. “The Peacemakers have a physical structure that is considered to be humanoid, a now-outdated term coined by the IPC after the discovery of what was considered to be a superior race.”

“Tell me more about the physical stuff.”

“Featuring singular lungs and stomachs, as well as short intestinal tracts and advanced circulatory systems, the Peacemakers more closely resemble the Creatine race, who also share a similar birthmark pattern.” Six paused again. “The Peacemakers are born with marks of different colors that are used to tell them apart at birth, since the ancient tradition of separating the offspring from the parents is still in use to this day. Peacemaker history is rich with tradition, with another historical convention being the folktale that each Peacemaker is marked similarly to one’s soulmate.”

“Why does mine feel different from the rest of the skin?” Justin wondered, running his hand over the dark mark on his stomach. 

“Instead of being made of the same material as the skin, the pronunciation of which is not loaded on my datachip, the fingernails, birthmark, and hair are all made of the same genetic material. While the colors vary from person to person, the structure and location of the marks is relatively similar.”

“What is the significance of the colors?”

“The colors are determined by a variety of genetic factors, none of which are terribly significant.”

Justin dropped his hand from his birthmark. “Got it. Insignificant.” He sighed. “Tell me more about the traditions.”


End file.
